Gunmen in Paris Kill 12 at Offices of Satirical Newspaper Charlie Hebdo

[trotsky]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting.html

PARIS — Masked gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire in the offices of a French satirical newspaper on Wednesday in Paris, the police said, killing 12 people and then escaping in a car.

President François Hollande said the attack on the weekly, Charlie Hebdo, was “without a doubt” an act of terrorism and raised the nationwide terror alert to its highest status. He said that several terrorist attacks had been thwarted in recent weeks.

Surely this has nothing to do with religion, right?

In 2011, the office of the weekly was badly damaged by a firebomb after it published a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections. It had announced plans to publish a special issue renamed “Charia Hebdo,” a play on the word in French for Shariah law.

Oh. Well maybe that was just a coincidence. Surely these attackers weren't motivated by religion.

The United States official noted that, according to social media reports, the attackers did refer to the Prophet Muhammad, saying he was “avenged.”

Well alrighty then.

[AlbertCat]

1. The religion of peace strikes again!

I saw this on the AOL news feed.... some commenter said it was "facilitated by liberals".

Who here thinks Muslim terrorists are liberals? Hands????


I replied it was "facilitated" by the same thing Christianity and all religions are: ignorance, superstition, bigotry, fear and guilt. That sounds so liberal!

[JDDavis]

2. Religion gives permission for so many murders

But I am sure some folks on DU think these horrendous acts have nothing at all to do with religion.

We will hear from them in 3...2...1

[cleanhippie]

3. Religion gives its believers permission for anything.

They can find justification for any action in their scriptures.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. and that applies to all of them.

be they catholic, baptist, sikh, hindi, or sunni.

[cleanhippie]

10. 100% true

[Rob H.]

8. There's already at least one person in GD

claiming the gunmen weren't True Muslims™.

[LostOne4Ever]

9. Cause religious people never doing anything wrong...

[RussBLib]

12. Kinda like when Christian fanatics bomb a mosque or kill an abortion provider....

...they are derided as not being "true Christians."

But whether they are "true" or "fake" Christians or Muslims, they have still done the abhorrent deed, and they would not have done the deed had not a religion implanted the idea in their deluded minds.

[NeoGreen]

4. I had the thought of...

...posting a blank white image with a black border and labeling it: "The Prophet in his Clown Suit".

In response to these murderous idiots.

Satire must not be suppressed.

[wavesofeuphoria]

5. This witness to the Charlie Hebdo attack is tweeting what he saw

This witness to the Charlie Hebdo attack is tweeting what he saw
http://www.vox.com/2015/1/7/7507923/this-witness-to-the-charlie-hebdo-attack-is-tweeting-what-he-saw

"Question: the assassins were as calm as professionals, but hadn't located the offices of Charlie Hebdo. They took the wrong staircase at first"

"The scouting of Charlie Hebdo was very imprecise. They at first got the wrong premises and address."

weird

[Curmudgeoness]

11. Of course it had nothing to do with religion.

That is why they shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic.

[RussBLib]

13. kudos to the French

...for not bowing to terrorists



USA TODAY story

are we still seeing blowback from France's occupation of Algeria?

French police already seem to know who did it. They have the driver in custody and the two brothers are still at large.

Fanatic Muslims have to get it thru their fat heads that they are not going to "convert" or "conquer" the west. We are not going to give up our freedoms because of your sick delusions.

Combine freedom, ignorance, and high-powered weapons. 12 more dead today.

Where can I find the cartoons that provoked the murders today? I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of them soon, hopefully.

[RussBLib]

14. "We have avenged the Prophet"

That's what the murderers said.

For publishing cartoons.

For insulting Islam.

For insulting the Prophet.

Just the latest religious insanity? Some people really cannot take a joke.

[truebrit71]

15. But the attacks have nothing to do with religion...nothing at all...

...it has to be true 'cos i saw it right here on DU...

[RussBLib]

16. if you try to take "religion" out of this equation...

...then what was the attack about?

Were the attackers publishing a rival magazine and they wanted supremacy?

Did some woman spurn one of the attackers and this was an act of unrequited love, gang-style?

Remove religion - Islam - from the equation and the attack just makes no sense at all. How could this possibly NOT be about religion?

[truebrit71]

17. No clue, but i've seen it right here that religion wasn't the primary, or secondary, or tertiary...

...reason for this attack...

Because religion is a force for good....

Or something..

[LiberalAndProud]

18. I've really tried to wrap my head around the idea.

Had the terrorists not been marginalized, they would not have fallen prey to violent religious ideologies. It's about poverty and mental illness.

Even granting all that, in the end, it's still about religion. I can't make the equation solve differently.